Teaching Parents via Web 2.0: Designing, Implementing and Evaluating a Collaborative Environment

A.R. Moghaddam, PhD

The research intended to design, implement and evaluate a collaborative web 2.0 environment for parents education. To this end, a qualitative approach and an action research method were adopted. Hardware infrastructures, software affordances, virtual instructional models, and programs as well as priorities of the Association for Parents Education of the Ministry of Education were studied as the prerequisites of designing and implementing the platform. Subsequently, a number of parents were recruited to participate in a pilot implementation study. The data came from the interviews with these participants as well as the observations made during the study and the policy documents. Results reveal that parents education via web 2.0 has the potential to decrease the issues pertaining to the males’ participation in the face-to-face classes. It has also provided an opportunity for the employed parents to take part in the virtual classes. However, there have been drawbacks to the effectiveness of this environment including women’s participation, the Internet literacy and the bandwidth.

Key words: parents education, action research, participation, web 2.0